Steven Conliff (November 24, 1949 – June 1, 2006) was a Midwestern-based Native American writer, historian, social satirist, alternative-media publisher and political activist in the 1960s and 1970s. Conliff is chiefly remembered for throwing a banana cream pie at James A. Rhodes, the governor of Ohio, in 1977, at the opening of the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio.

Biography

Steve Conliff attended

Miami University Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public university, public research university in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the second-oldest List of colleges and universities in Ohio, university in Ohi ...

of Ohio, where he worked extensively with the

National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which became the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, was a coalition of American antiwar activists formed in November 1966 to organize large demonstrations in o ...

, known as "the mobe". It was during his time with the mobe that he began to question the effectiveness of "politics as usual" and at about the same time, met up with the Youth International Party (Yippies). It was as a newly-converted Yippie that Conliff moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1970, briefly attending

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

. Most of his activities revolved around politics and political organizing; he was a gifted and tireless organizer. One of his first experiences passing out anti-war leaflets at a local campus burger-joint got him arrested for

vagrancy Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, waste picker, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western ...

; he immediately challenged the constitutionality of the vagrancy laws as discriminatory against youth and poor people. In the summer of 1970, Steve Conliff started his first Yippie publication, ''Purple Berries''—which later morphed into the publication ''Sour Grapes''.SOUR GRAPES cover
Youth International Party, Columbus, OH, 1974 Conliff was also one of the founders of the '' Columbus Free Press'' (to which he contributed up until his passing) and the public-education-critical ''Subversive Scholastic'' (1978–84).
SUBVERSIVE SCHOLASTIC cover : May/June 1980
/ref> He regularly wrote for ''YIPster Times'' (1972–78), ''HVPTA / Bite Magazine'' (1978-80), and ''Overthrow'' (1979–98). In addition, Conliff's work also appeared in ''

High Times ''High Times'' was an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade. The magazine had its own book publishing d ...

'', '' News From Indian Country'', ''Akwesasne Notes'', ''Open Road'', ''Take Over'', '' Fifth Estate'', ''

In These Times In These Times may refer to: *In These Times (magazine), ''In These Times'' (magazine), an American monthly magazine of news and opinion *In These Times (Peter, Paul, and Mary album), ''In These Times'' (Peter, Paul, and Mary album), a 2004 album b ...

'' and ''The Mohican News''—among numerous other zines and underground newspapers, frequently writing under the pseudonym "Leon Yipsky." He helped launch countless other publications, and published the local magazine ''Columbus Entertainment'' (which focused on cultural diversity before it was fashionable) from 1986 to 1988. A tribal descendant, Conliff presented papers detailing

Mohican The Mohicans ( or ) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, whose indigenous territory was ...

Indian history on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation (2001) at the

New York State Museum The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, Albany, New York (state), New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the south side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza and to ...

in Albany (2004). He also contributed American Indian ethnography to ''Notable Native Americans'' (Gale 1995) and ''Volume 1 of the Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes'' (Gale 1998). Steve Conliff was an important leader of the Yippies' second wave, which included well-known activists such as Tom Forcade, Ben Masel, A.J. Weberman, Aron Kay (another famous pie thrower), David Peel, and Dana Beal. He was also the transatlantic coordinator of the Rock Against Racism USA campaign of 1979, helping to organize concerts in Columbus,

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, Madison,

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and New York City. Like Neal Cassady and similar charismatic personalities of the counterculture, it is hard to quantify the nearly-metaphysical impact Steve Conliff had on activists around him; besides storytelling and history-keeping, his great gifts were to inspire, encourage and engage.

The Pie and the Gubernatorial Campaign

Steve Conliff's decision to throw a pie at Governor Rhodes was due to Rhodes' direct role in the

Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings (also known as the Kent State massacre or May 4 massacre"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years before (Ma ...

; particularly 1) the ordering of Ohio

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

troops onto campus, and 2) his angry speech given the day before the shootings (May 3, 1970) to assembled news media. Rhodes' infamous speech was said to inflame conservatives as well as the guardsmen occupying campus, thereby lighting the fuse of an already-incendiary situation:

We have seen here at the City of
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
especially, probably the most vicious form of campus-oriented violence yet perpetrated by dissident groups and their allies in the State of Ohio ... these people just move from one campus to the other and terrorize a community. They're worse than the
Brown Shirts The (; SA; or 'Storm Troopers') was the original paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. I ...
and the communist element and also the Night Riders and the vigilantes. They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. And I want to say that they're not going to take over the campus. And the campus now is going to be part of the County and the State of Ohio.

In 1977, the

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

Administration decided to build a gymnasium on the exact site of the

, where there was already a small but respectful memorial to the four slain students erected by B'nai B'rith. This provoked a series of protests: there were numerous demonstrations and an infamous "

Tent City A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures. State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable te ...

" erected on the site that eventually had to be bulldozed down, its 193 inhabitants forcibly removed and arrested. It was in this carnival atmosphere that the pieing of Governor James Rhodes took place. After pieing Rhodes and the generally-positive reaction, Conliff decided to run for governor against Rhodes, as a Republican. This campaign was not treated very seriously by Ohio media, but gave Conliff access to various conservative venues in which he delivered anti-war, anti-capitalist and pro-marijuana speeches to decidedly-unfriendly audiences with aplomb, which he seemed to enjoy:

Yippie Conliff says he's too young to serve as governor even if elected, but sees no problem with the state not having a governor.

When his Lieutenant Governor candidate, yippie Leatrice Urbanowicz, was thrown off the GOP ballot for being a registered Democrat, that was also an occasion for more Yippie hoopla.

Zorba the Freak

One of Conliff's continuing characters throughout his work was an alter ego, "the Leader of the Street People", named Zorba the Freak. Zorba liked to dish about other Yippies (who often recognized themselves in his stories) and became locally legendary, as well as an inside joke among the Yippies. According to Columbus poet-activist Steve Abbott:

In journalism, historically, columnists have created alter egos who they supposedly interview but who speak for them. Finley Peter Dunne did Mr. Dooley.
Mike Royko Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago, Illinois. Over his 42-year career, he wrote more than 7,500 daily columns for the '' Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', an ...
did Slats Grobnik. And
William Raspberry William Raspberry (October 12, 1935 – July 17, 2012) was an American syndicated public policy, public affairs columnist. He was also the Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy ...
always had the taxicab driver in Washington. Conliff had someone called Zorba the Freak—incredibly funny, incredibly well-written pieces that combine satire and commentary.

Blacklisted News

With Dana Beal and the New Yippie Book Collective, Conliff published the 733-page anthology ''Blacklisted News: Secret Histories from Chicago 1968 to 1984'', foreword by William Kunstler. Steve Conliff wrote over half of this volume, a detailed chronicle of specific Yippie actions all over the world (in the middle section titled "The Dreaded Yippie Curse") and a colorful collection of underground posters, jeremiads, essays, news clippings, comics, photos, articles, reviews and other counter-cultural history.

Personal life

Conliff met artist Suzan Bird in 1970, while she was working in the hippie enclave of Pearl Alley, adjacent to the OSU campus:

He was selling ''Purple Berries'', and he would come by E.G. Leather on Pearl Alley trying to get ads. It was one of the old hippie shops. I worked there at the time, so I would sit on the porch and talk to him, and we got to know each other fairly well just sitting and chatting.

The two married in 1973 and had three sons. Bird's art work often accompanied Conliff's written pieces, especially in ''Purple Berries'' and ''Sour Grapes''. Steve Conliff died of lung cancer on June 1, 2006.

Bibliography

* ''We Are Not McGovernable: What Cronkite Didn't Tell You about the '72 Democratic Convention'' - Youth International Party, 1972 * ''Purple Berries'' and ''Sour Grapes'' - Ohio YIP periodicals, 1970-1974 * ''Subversive Scholastic'' 1978–1984 * ''Peace in Persia'' - Poetry inspired by the

Iran hostage crisis The Iran hostage crisis () began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981. Th ...

, 1981 * ''

Zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' (; ; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F ...

: The Ballad of Tom Forcade'' - A lyric 'epic' poem first published in full in ''Blacklisted News''—has been excerpted numerous times as an obituary for Forcade and the " Zippies" (Zeitgeist International Party) -- the radical breakaway Yippie faction that demonstrated at the 1972 Republican and Democratic Conventions in

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

. * ''Blacklisted News: Secret Histories from Chicago, '68, to 1984'' - Bleecker Publishing, 1983 * ''Chief Buffalo'' and ''The Green Arm'' - Two novels uploaded to the free internet in the early 00s, now unavailable, circa 2003 * ''8060 Olentangy River Road'' posthumously published, 2010

Notes

References

External links

Steve Conliff: A legend has passed away but his spirit is with us

''STATE v. CONLIFF'' : 28 December 1978 , COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

PHOTO : Steve Conliff making speech at Rock Against Reagan concert, Ohio State House, April 30, 1983
(Yippie archives)
YIPPIE ISSUED KENT STATE RELATED ANTI OHIO GOVERNOR PIE IN FACE BUTTON
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conliff, Steven Yippies 1949 births 2006 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in Ohio Native American writers Native American activists Activists from Ohio American anti–Vietnam War activists American cannabis activists American political writers New Left Mohican people